“The goal of this thing is two-fold: it’s to maximize participation and to find the fittest man and woman on Earth,” CrossFit founder and CEO Greg Glassman says as he discusses the significant changes to the format of the 2011 CrossFit Games.

“There is no aspect of this change that wasn’t an unavoidable consequence of explosive growth,” he says.

While the feedback hasn’t all been positive, Glassman says that those speaking out against the new format haven’t thought it through. He says the CrossFit Games Open will help realize the true purpose of the Games.

“It changes the landscape significantly, and it doubly reinforces the potential that we are truly going to find the fittest man and the fittest woman on Earth,” he says.

And rest assured, cheating won’t win you the title “Fittest on Earth.” According to Glassman, there are unavoidable issues in logistics and judging, but that won’t change with any format.

“The sanctity of the top placers, I think, is fairly guaranteed in what we’re doing,” he says.

Coach Glassman explained that you can’t claim to be the best hockey team in the world without winning the Stanley Cup, and you can’t claim to be… Continue Reading

53 Comments on “Change ”

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I didn't read the comments on the previous "Games Format" videos, but I really don't see the problem with the new format. Missed reps or poor ROM might be more of a factor in the Masters categories, when the numbers are so small, but so be it.
One additional advantage of this format is that more people will compete who are never going to be contenders. Any increase of enthusiasm at the bottom end of the pyramid is good for CrossFit as a whole.

You're not even close to claiming the fittest moniker, because you're still eliminating half the sample (at least) through means other than how fit one is. Does anyone in California have any idea what it costs for a Games participant on the East Coast to fly across the country, THEN find a place to stay, meals, per diem, etc?

How about someone coming from Europe? China?

You've made it easier for people to show their stuff, but it's still about "the fittest person with enough money to make the trek".

Until you find a way around that- which really doesn't seem that hard, if you think about it for a minute or six- can Crossfit, as a sport, really begin to seriously claim that "fittest" title?

I can also see the day when athletes have their competing (and equipment? coaching? nutrition?) costs covered by a sponsor. Until that day, we need to live within the limitations of where we're at.

I forecast that we're going to see some unprecedented feats of capacity in the top contender videos - and I hope they will be posted on the games site as they are submitted or as a collective preview to the regionals. What do you think HQ?

Great video. I think it's very forward thinking and incredibly open minded to have an "open" style competition for your championship. What other sport does that? If you look at running, swimming, rowing, golf, basketball, etc, it's near impossible to be a part of the process of determining the best of the best unless you're already an elite. I love the idea of getting ranked against all other competitors at my level across the world, even if I'm in the 1000s. Kudos to Coach Glassman and the others for sticking to the core value of community even at the Games level.

@Jason above. Obviously, you have to have a respectable amount of money to be a part of the process, but that's part and parcel of the sport (and any sport). If you're truly an elite, or at least competitive at the Regionals level, you'll find a way to get the cash to travel.

"If you're truly an elite, or at least competitive at the Regionals level, you'll find a way to get the cash to travel."

Really?

Can anyone tell me what the dropout rate of qualifiers was last year? I know in the Women's division from the Ontario regionals, several of the top contenders couldn't and didn't make the trip due to money issues. I'd expect that carries across the board rather well, increasing as you move farther east, and becoming 90% or so for anything out of the hemisphere.

Upping the purse actually decreases the chance that those folks will make the trip, because it attracts more and more professional athletes. Even if there's $150,000 in prize money if you win, if the $7-10,000 it will cost you to make the trip will break you, what's the point of taking the shot?

See, leaving aside all the endless debate about whether or not Crossfit makes the fittest athletes, or that the Games showcases that, you're still working with a heavily tainted sample, and one that's based on economic brackets and constraints, and favors those who have money.

On that alone, can you say that truthfully that the best Crossfitters in the world are at the Games? Can you actually legitimately call the winner the fittest?

I'd say the claim to fittest is still legitimate despite your valid (though overstated) concerns. I think I can confidently predict that soon in the future winning the regionals, and thus qualifying for the games, will come with it the nice prize of free travel accommodations.

Even if these travel furnishings don't come directly from HQ (though I think they should) athletes who clearly demonstrate the ability to compete for the title of world's fittest at their regionals will through years of performance coupled with the growth of the sport acquire some sort of sponsorship or means to travel to California.

If you lack the accommodations to get to your regionals then it's likely you lack the accommodations to even train adequately for the title.

On a separate note: this online qualifier thing is great, you don't even need to pay five bucks if you just want to do the same WOD. I see myself talking my powerlifting/strongman roommates into doing them with me and then celebrating appropriately afterwords.

the best athletes will find a way to make it there. there are plenty of companies out there sponsoring athletes. i promise you if you are good enough for the games and perform at regionals companies will pick you up. my company is one of them www.2pood.com

we are always on the lookout for up and coming talent as are numerous other companies.

winners find a way to win

also i would like to point out to everyone that no company or methodology or system is perfect and you cant make everyone happy all the time.

I love the new format, and Though there will always be issues with cheating, intentionally, or even ROM issues for mixed reps it will all be solved at Regionals. Pragmaticaly the guy who barely makes it to Regionals is not a legitimate contender to make it to the Games and will be exposed. This method allows CFHQ more control over the sectional programming and allows people, like myself, who would have never been capable of experiencing competitiom, the opportunity.
That being said, with all the people and money coming in to CF why can't CFHQ write the check for the Games qualifiers? Large corporations underwrite these kind of expenses for workshops, training, conventions and seminars all the time. Why not?

Funding would be an issue for me. I planned to go to sectionals for the experience this year as a masters athlete after watching the games. I started working and saving for it the day I decided to do that. I also started planning how I was going to fundraise or get sponsored or both in order to fund Regionals in the unlikely event I needed to. One less financial hurdle in the way now that sectionals are on line. Too bad about missing out on the "experience" of sectionals but this is the inevitable progression, and considering that Crossfit first got out via word of mouth and online it is logical. People who are motivated enough to put in the work to earn the right to go to Regionals or to Cali surely wil, or at least should, be motivated enough to find a way to get there.

"If you lack the accommodations to get to your regionals then it's likely you lack the accommodations to even train adequately for the title."

Funny, I thought one could do Crossfit- and excel at it- on a shoestring budget in a garage-gym, with mostly homemade gear. Wasn't that the whole point?

Are we now at the point where one "MUST" buy gear recommended- or manufactured- by someone in order to excel at this?

As for the idea of full rides as part of qualifying; I highly doubt it, and I'll believe it when I see it.

On sponsorship, I'll point this out: Odds are, in order to get sponsored, you have to be a part of an affiliate. Again, you're talking financial limitations; How many folks can afford $125-$200/month to train at an affiliate? What if you're doing Crossfit solo? You fly below the radar, and get ignored. And, let's not forget, most affiliates cut the financial line pretty close. AT THE VERY MOST, they may scratch, beg, or borrow enough to send one person, depending on where they are. What if there's two? Three?

I'm simply playing devil's advocate here, but it strikes me that's its remarkably easy to do so.

Kristofer you can't confidently comment on funding regional spaces. Just like Baker can't confidently say that the top person in Eastern Canada or Europe or Africa can get sponsored.

In the video, Glassman does the same thing. He definitively declares things, and then backs them up with hypotheticals. He didn't lose 1000 hours of sleep. And there is no evidence that next year the Games would have required 500 or 1000 sectionals. A massive burden for translators?! Weights and times don't need translation. The cost is only a friend with a flip phone? Not exactly. How could there ever be more sectionals than affiliates? There obviously isn't that many legit competitors.

Maximizing participation and finding the fittest are separate goals. The quest to find the fittest can be maximally inclusive, but that is seperate. Just because anyone can enter, doesn't mean everyone should get to compete. The majority of the people at the sectionals know they aren't going to win. Countless 'amateur' crossfit events occur all the time. There is no sense in trying to merge all of those with the official CF Games.

If you think you can't beat Mikko, Graham, Froning, Speal, Chan, Kristen, Annie, etc, then you likely can't. You can knock back the number of people allowed to compete by implementing some basic qualifying criteria. Is your Fran time over 5 minutes? Can't clean and jerk 225? Run a 5k in 25 minutes? You aren't the fittest. Plain and simple.

There are no other sports where competition in the main event includes so many beginners and yet-to-be developed athletes.

If people enjoy the competition so much, tournaments can go down in any city/state/province, at any time. It doesn't diminish the performance or the fun. But honestly, if you came 37th at last year's sectional, you don't really compete against 'everyone else' anyways.

The reasoning behind this new format just seems irrelevant. If the goal is finding the fittest, it's a waste of time. And competing 'online' by yourself, is what many people do everyday anyways.

Jason, and the rest of you other Socialist! You are right, CrossFit owes you, they should ensure that everyone gets a shot. As a matter of fact, fuck it, give everyone a trophy too. CrossFit shame on you for ever having a vision and running with it. You should be utterly destroyed because you cannot please every body in the world! Let me compete, pay my way, bend over back wards to ensure that I get the same, or rather so that no one can get more than me!
Let me ask you; what is it that you believe CrossFit owes to you or anyone else? They put their method out there so that you can take it or leave it. They open up the sectionals and ultimately the games in California so that you can take it or leave it. Losers always wine about their best, winners go home and fuck the prom queen buddy, or if you prefer, the king! paraphrased from - Sean Connery. Quit winning and go home and fuck the prom queen/king! You lack vision! You lack audacity! You lack fortitude and resolve! When someone says that they are "simply playing devil's advocate" they are really saying in that tiny, deep-down, scared, little voice is that they are willing to cop-out! I'm just playing devils advocate...I hate that passive aggressive bullshit. Say what you mean or don't freaking say it!
I have my own affiliate with CrossFit. I run it out of my garage. I could not imagine 40 people showing up here, much less a thousand gonna-Be's CrossFit games hopefuls. I can barely afford the 50 dollars in gas money to drive the 80 miles north to go volunteer at the games. It's a bad economy. It sucks every where! On that same note, if I had some folks here at my gym qualify for the regionals, I/we would find a way...it is called using your imagination and having the courage to try. Jason. you keep playing "Devils Advocate." I am going to go try and find a prom queen! And if first I don't succeed at that, I will try and try again.
I am absolutely, positively, most assuredly not "playing devil's advocate" here!

Ha Ha I meant whining, not winning on that last comment. The opposite of winning is what I meant, 180 degrees opposite. This is what happens when I give in to the temptation of leaving a comment. Jason, you got me, score one for you for getting me to comment. Damn you!

I think a combination of the Open Sectionals and community support are the biggest rebuttals to this.

The visibility of the Open videos, that everyone online can see whoa re the top placers, will ensure that any impoverished athlete who has the potential to win the games will come to the attention of people with the money to ensure that they can.

If some dirt poor athlete tops the field in every WOD I can guarantee that money will be found to get them to the games. We've already seen Rogue come to the party to sponsor athletes and we've seen another offer here. I know, not guess, not predict, know, that when people became aware of athlete's financial position last year they funded their travel.
This happened.
It will happen again.

The visibility of the online Sectional process means that no-one with the potential to win will be overlooked.

The barrier becomes equipment and being able to post video online. Those are hurdles and in some places they're not inconsiderable. But they're much lower hurdles than having to travel to a Sectional and then again to a Regional and then again to the finals.

A couple of years back Chris Kemp was predicting great things for this Finnish fireman called Mikko Salo who had trashed the field in the European qualifiers. He was right, but no-one outside of those qualifiers really believed Kempie. Sure the guy was good, but how would he compare with the top guns in the US? If we'd been able to see Mikko qualifying and compare his workouts one for one against everyone else' there wouldn't have been any doubt and the guy would have had a much easier time making it to the 2009 Games.

Much of the CF community is still geared around being online and I'd be willing to wager that anyone who shines in the Opens will not have financial difficulty getting to a Regional if their situation becomes known.
Will the community rally to help someone who came 200th in the Opens? Probably not.
Top 10? Guarantee it.

I mean shit, I've been known to run long on my writings, but at least I make sense when I blather.

I mean, I know you WROTE..... stuff. Letters formed into words and shit. But none of it really made any sense. It kinda resembled a thought process, but it honestly looked a bit like hysterical rambling. I think you called me a Socialist for reasons unfathomable to anyone, declared that Crossfit owes me something (I was unaware of this- should I send them a bill of some sort?)and then I'm pretty sure you repeatedly quoted something from "The Rock", and then..... well, coherent thought seems to have abandoned you by then.

Stop. relax. Have some dip. (I see your Connery, and raise you Carlin).

Craig....

Thanks for the well-reasoned argument. I was afraid after Brian's post that all attempts at thought had been abandoned. On your thoughts, I guess time will tell- I was hoping part of that Reebok deal would include SOMETHING to make it easier for the best to get to the Games to compete, but I guess not.

It would be cool if the crossfit private jet came and shuttled people to the games; it would also be awesome to win a giant gold dragon as first prize like the Kumite. This is the best system for right now, the idea is sound and it allows people to enter the competetion who normally couldnt. As far as the location of the games, they have to be somewhere so unless cities start bidding on them like the olympics they will probably be in California.

Last I checked the Olympics, or pretty much every other sport doesn't care if you can afford it or how you get the money together to travel around the world to compete. There's a reason why Home Depot is the largest employer for Olympic athletes and why families take out multiple mortgages on their house to pay for their kids training and travel expenses. Nobody deserves a free hand out. If you want that title you do what you got to do to get there.

Jason.....if you want it bad enough then i guess you will find the money and fly to cali and compete. if not then stop ur complaining! You probably pay at least 150 a month for your crossfit membership, so if you can afford that then you can afford a trip to cali for 3 days. I live on the east coast and if i qualify i'll be there......ever heard of visa or mastercard. stop making excuse of why you wont make it to the games!

Without having watched this video yet (I will do it as soon as it finishes downloading) I would like to say that this new Open format has so much potential it is exciting.

Previously, athletes passing through the different Sectional and Regional competitions all faced different programming in their workouts. The fact that they had not all travelled the exact same path, so to speak, made it difficult to say that they were all the 'best of the best'. The fact remains that there may have been better athletes than them who were left behind simply because they belonged to more highly-competitive regions.

But now every single athlete, from celebrities like Spealer to the teenager who has only been Crossfitting a few months, everyone will be put through the exact same test. For the first time ever, HQ will have a comprehensive database showing the capabilities of all competing Crossfitters worldwide.

Just think for a moment about what kind of information this data could reveal. I can't wait!

I've been reading and commenting on all these "Open Sectional" posts quite a bit. Glad to see the temperment has improved with more and more people accepting the idea.

@Jason, personally I think that anyone that posts a top 100 score in the open sectionals will get all the help necessary to make it to the regionals and the games. With a $250,000 purse I'm sure anyone making the games WILL have all the help necessary to make it there. We are talking about a community that offers discounts if not free certifications and affiliation to military, LEO and school groups so I can see that same mindset being extended to extremely fit people that are lacking in financial means.

About the format:
Currently, the only real problem I think will be determining who's in what region. What is the deciding factor in that: Where one is born, where one lives, where one works, where their affiliate (if any) is located, where one will be during the sectionals, where one will be during the Regionals, etc? Personal opinion is that the athelete decides their own region when they sign up for open sectionals. If you make the regionals, it's then up to you to make it to the region you picked to compete.

I love the concept. I love the idea of leveraging technology to find the "Guy" and "Gal." It makes me proud to be part of this community that embraces change and tries to find new ways to solve a problem. Will it be absolutely perfect? Maybe, maybe not. But it will certainly be an exciting approach.

Jason, if a top athlete qualified for regionals and absolutely couldn't afford it, I'm sure there would be some way to get him or her to the competition. I come from rowing, which is a vastly underfunded sport where a lot of guys eschew jobs for training, thus making it extremely difficult to travel to qualification regattas and championships. If they can't afford the multiple thousand price tags, their clubs host fundraising parties for the athletes and families usually chip in something. That's one solution. A third party sponsor is another, like the "plug" above.

Personally, I wouldn't ever let money get in the way of my goals, athletic or otherwise. The system CFHQ has put in place is the fairest and most open I've ever seen for any of the various sports I've been involved with.

Hard to believe anyone's getting worked up over this idea. Can the winner be acclaimed fittest in the world? Sure. Will some people be unable to attend due to cost? No doubt. It'll be the cheapest road to the Games this year since 2008.

This is going to be as much fun as anyone wants to make it, and way more fun for more people than a Sectional. Seems like there's only one question - are you going to compete or not?

Rather than simply debate that a "contender" top athlete will be sponsored or otherwise get the assistance they need to travel to regionals, this format exposes the results for all to see. If an athlete is top 60 in a region ( I believe that that it the right threshold), they qualify for regionals. If they don't subsequently compete at regionals it must be for only a few reasons:
1. They couldn't afford to go to regionals
2. They got injured or sick or were otherwise not physically able to make it.
3. They encountered some personal conflict such as can't leave work, personal commitment, family emergency, etc
4. They just didn't want to advance

So, yes, it becomes "fittest of those who could come". But financial reasons is only one possible reason for not appearing. We will, however, have the data to determine the dropout rate. It will be even more interesting to look at perhaps top 10 per region and see who does not show.

The same logic applies to those at regionals qualifying to advance to the games themselves.

Now, I'd be wiling to bet and would agree with those here that the top 10 per region will be offered sponsorship or if they ask around could find the funds needed

By the way, it is not purely hypothetical to ask how many qualifiers last year did not advance. All the raw data to answer that is available online. It wouldn't be a simple task, but you could comb through all the sectionals results and determine which qualified but did not show at regionals. You could also analyze regionals results and determine no shows for the games. I suspect that very few quality athletes did not show and if so, it was not primarily for financial reasons.

Funding can definitely be an issue. It's not cheap to make a cross-country trip to compete. Our affiliate team qualified for the games last year, and some of those people absolutely could not afford to go. They didn't whine about it though, they took action. They put together a trivia night and raised enough money to fund $600 to each of their travel costs. They didn't expect hand-outs; they made it happen. If you want it bad enough, you will find a way.

"Conditions are never just right. People who delay action until all factors are favorable do nothing." - William Feather

If there's a dark horse candidate that's truly strapped, and has a compelling story, and the ability to make it to the Games hinges upon whether they will be able to afford a hotel or not, well heck: I live an hour away and they can stay at my place, gratis. And we'll get you a ride to and from the Games each day. I tell you the truth.

After watching Coach’s videos and reading what has been put out on the format for the 2011 Crossfit Games, a few things come to mind.

1) The video format is being implemented to give everyone a chance at proving they are the fittest man/women or master in the world. In order to accommodate the individual in Siberia, who doesn’t live near a box, a few assumptions about the movements/workouts being put into the hopper have to be made.

A) Running is probably out of the hopper because it would be too hard to validate the distance being run and very hard to keep a camera on the individual during the event. So then what about rowing for a sub? Would everyone have to compete on a Concept 2 rower? That is an expensive piece of equipment most run of the mill garage crossfitter’s don’t have.
B) Sandbag carries and runs would be out, once again no way to validate the workout or the sandbag’s weight.
C) What about rings and muscle ups. I’ve found that the type of ring (smooth plastic or metal vs. wood or rough plastic) really makes a difference as to the grip and turning the wrists out. Also, is tape allowed on the rings to improve grip?
D) How about rope climbing? Where does a garage crossfitter find a 15’ 1 ½” manila rope?

So if we are equipment limited on the WOD’s we can perform are we really looking for the best competitors across broad time and modal domains?

2) Why are we treating the Masters division differently? How can you compare WOD’S from individuals who live in different areas and then judge who is worthy of going to the games. An athlete competing at higher elevation is at a distinct disadvantage to an athlete competing at sea level. An athlete in a temperate climate with low humidity at a tremendous advantage to one performing in a hot, humid or a frigid environment. Why not invite the top Masters competitors to the Sectionals to determine who is worthy of advancing to the games.

First the couple things I don't like, 1: Saying that for $5 you can compete in the games... more like for $5 you can compete in the open sectionals, as Ashman has stated, competing in the games is going to be costly. 2: actually that was all :)

I like how anyone can put up a video and compete, it's a giant CrossFit HQ run version of an amped up beyondthewhiteboard.com, a site that is 100% AWESOME btw...

This will definitely make the community more competitive as I forsee the site carrying on and on throughout the year. It will definitely connect crossfitters from far and near, in a much better way than the antiquated posting system for each day's wod, and forget about the forum, there is so little traffic on that it's more of an archive of FAQ's than a discussion board (my opinion).

So for everyone that wants to moan about the new format, ask yourself: Am I really good enough to make it to regionals and then good enough to make it to the games, or am I just on a pipe dream and looking for a good excuse as to why I didn't win the top prize? Please face reality and understand that it isn't the open sectionals format or everything that HQ does to provide you with the best GPP and community out there that might be holding you back from glory...

There are certainly pros and cons here, but the real shame in the new format is that a six week open essentially eliminates all college/pro athletes from competing - they simply cannot sacrifice that much training time. Two weekends a couple months apart to see if you have what it takes to make it to the Games is reasonable, but six straight weeks seems highly unlikely...

If all these pro athletes you speak of don't put in the effort to take less than an hour a week to do one workout, then they likely aren't worthy competitors, and don't want it badly enough. They aren't actually sacrificing ANY training time.

People need to stop making excuses for all these people who "can't" try out for the games for whatever reason, and understand that the amount of people that WILL be able to participate is tenfold compared to previous years. If you're looking for holes in this plan, you need to keep in mind how many more holes were in previous years' plans, in terms of who is able to participate.

I agree that there have been holes in every set-up, and that there will never be a perfect situation for everyone. A six-week Sectionals effectively turns CrossFit into a sport for CrossFitters, increases the number of CrossFit competitiors (good), and limits athletes from other disciplines such as MMA and track & field (bad). The $250,000 pot could have drawn interest from exceptional athletes from different backgrounds, but if really going for it would require an overhaul of over two months of their training to prep and compete for six weeks, it may not be worth it. Would any of them win? I doubt it, but a few may have advanced to Regionals and decided to stick with a new growing sport and develop into a Games competitor - I actually had this happen to a friend last year, and he has since opened an excellent affiliate of his own and will be competiting again this year.

The number of trained, serious CrossFit athletes who have a shot at the Games will be the same regardless of a one or six week system. The number of casual CrossFitters competing with no shot at the Games will greatly increase. The number of non-CrossFit athletes competing with a shot to advance will be limited.

I'm a hammer thrower training for the US championships this year and hopefully the trials next year. I'm also training to compete in olympic weightlifting. FWIW, as someone training to be great at CrossFit and at other sports, I think this sectionals format is much more accommodating - I train CrossFit 5x per week anyway, so now I can keep doing that rather than trying to coordinate a taper for sectionals which would definitely affect my training for the other sports. This way, best case, I have two major CrossFit events to train for (regionals and the games), rather than three.

Coach mentioned that the majority of those posting to complain about one aspect or another of the qualifying format had obviously not spent a lot of time considering how best to deal with the fundamental drivers of the changes involved. Another thing that we see is that most of the negative comments are not in any way accompanied by positive suggestions about how to do a better job of it considering the inevitable increase in interest worldwide.

The quickest way to improve the signal-to-noise ratio in these discussions would be to have a rule that negative comments would only be considered if they included at least two suggestions detailing how the problem could be better addressed. Things can't stay the same. They must change. If you don't like what Greg and Dave and Tony and the rest have come up with, don't bitch about it unless you have a solid suggestion that can be better (not just now, but also in the long term).

If you are good enough to be at the games and you can post some ridiculous wod times and so on, I truly believe that someone WILL get you there. Especially now when the first price is 100k...its obvious that a person that doesnt have the money to go to the games has some shared interests with a company wanting to make a profit.
He goes to the games, they get 50% of his winnings....Deals like that happens all over...

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